David Thomson's objectives in this big, ambitious book are nothing short of Promethean, for he aims to deliver both a comprehensive history of the movies and a Marshall McLuhan-style examination of the mentalités produced by watching films and television.

He cast out the demons of possessed persons, and he bound the jân, wellah, in yonder corner.

a campaign to drugproof local families

the word “pornography” … is, I am aware, not altogether a satisfactory term, but it seems to me better than the ones usually used. The D.N.B., for example, offers the quaint “Kruptadia,” which is clearly impossible.